Da Gerico a Betlemme. La missione della Sapienza a Gerico e l’archeologia italiana in Palestina (1997-2017) con il contributo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale

When after the Oslo and Madrid agreements the Palestinian National Authority was established it was also provided of a Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities – Dept. of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (MOTA-DACH). At that time, Sapienza University of Rome was chosen as ideal partner to start a new deal in the archaeology of Palestine. By contrast with an enduring colonial tradition, which foresaw a full demission of responsibility by means of the “excavation permit” given by the Host Country to the European or American digging institutions, a new project was set up at Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho, one of the most long-lived human settlement in the ancient Near East, based upon an “Agreement on cooperation”, with which responsibilities and commitment to investigate, protect and rehabilitate the site were shared. The new project started in 1997 and is still continuing (13 seasons on the field have been carried out), the joint team works together as a unique team, and it has been engaged in transforming what was an almost unintelligible ruin into a prominent archaeological site, concealing the memory of some major steps of the Humankind, from the beginning of agriculture and animal breeding in the Neolithic (10,500-6000 BC), to the invention of modular architecture, the rise of the earliest city with the establishment of an urban model in the 3rd millennium BC. No other Institution or Country can boast such a continuous and successful cooperation as Sapienza and Italy in Palestine. The Jericho joint Italian-Palestinian Expedition has produced more than 100 scientific publication, has fully rehabilitated the archaeological site providing also a correct historical interpretation of its finds, free from any pre-conceiving and political or religious distortion. After two decades, the cooperation has become a model, and it has been expanded especially for the safeguard and protection of a heavy threatened Archaeological Heritage. With the publication of the Catalogue of the Archaeological sites of the Jericho Oasis (Rosapat 07, Rome 2011) a new step was accomplished involving the Municipality of Ariha and starting the Jericho Oasis Archaeological Park Project, which has rehabilitated and made suitable to tourist exploitation 13 main sites. In 2015 a rescue project, again founded upon an “Agreement of Cooperation” between the MOTA-DACH and Sapienza, started in Bethlehem to protect the many necropolis inside and around this city, and to reconstruct its early history. Four reports about the necropolis of Khalet al-Jama’ and Jebel Daher and Bethelehem in antiquity have already been published. Moreover, a new joint research Project was also started on the site of Tell Abu Zarad, in the Province of Salfeet, which was a major city of Palestine during the Bronze and the Iron Ages, also known from ancient sources with the name of Teffah. Two seasons have already been carried out at Abu Zarad and a preliminary report was published in 2016. This last project aims at rescuing and valorizing another piece of the ancient history of the Country.